Church
complex seen from southeast was formerly George F. Baker Jr. residence

By Carter
B. Horsley

This very handsome,
red-brick, Georgian-style complex houses the Synod of Bishops
of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia since 1958.

Sidestreet
courtyard

Its main building at the
Park Avenue corner was built for Francis F. Palmer in 1918 and
designed by Delano & Alrich, the architectural firm noted
for its "American Colonial" style projects that include
the Knickerbocker Club at 2 East 62nd Street at Fifth Avenue (see
The City Review article),
the Colony Club at 564 Park Avenue at 62nd Street (see The
City Review article), and the Third Church of Christ, Scientist
at 583 Park Avenue at 63rd Street (see The
City Review article). Delano & Aldrich also designed the
superb Georgian-style mansion at 1130 Fifth Avenue at 94th Street
for Willard Straight, which subsequently housed the National Aubudon
Society and then the International Center of Photography until
2001 when it a new purchaser decided to reconvert to residential
uses.

In his fine book, "Touring The Upper East Side, Walks in
Five Historic Districts" (published by the New York Landmarks
Conservancy, 1995), Andrew S. Dolkart offers the following commentary
about this complex:

"A decade after construction began the house was sold to
.... [George] F. Baker Jr., then vice-president of the First National
Bank (now Citibank), and his wife, Edith. For the Bakers, Delano
& Aldrich designed a series of additions, all of which harmonize
with the original work. The ballroom wing to the west and the
two-story garage at No. 69 form a spacious courtyard. The garage
features the boldest architectural element of the complex, a colonnade
of paired, fluted marble Ionic columns. Farther west, at No. 67,
Baker demolished a brownstone rowhouse in corder to build a house
for his father,...., the main force behind the creation of First
National Bank, but he died before its completion; at the senior
Baker's death "young Mr. Baker," ..., inherited $60
million and became chairman of the board of the bank. The nautical
motifs that ornament each addition - a conch shell at the ballroom,
scallop schells at the garage, and a pair of dolphins at No. 67
- may be associated with Baker's yachting interests; in fact,
he died on his yacht Viking in 1937."

Detail
of courtyard

The Baker complex has two
very distinguished mansion neighbors on the same sidestreet: 56
East 93rd Street, a Regency-style mansion designed by Walker &
Gillette in 1931 for Florence Loew, the sister of George F. Baker
Jr., which eventually was owned by Billy Rose, the showman, and
then used by the Smithers Alcoholism Center and finally was acquired
in 2000 by the Spence School; and 60 East 93rd Street, originally
the Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt house designed by John Russell
Pope in 1931, which eventually became the Permanent Mission of
Romania to the United Nations and then part of the Lycée
Français, and in 2000 was sold again, this time as a private
residence.

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